The remarkable adaptability of the device is also demonstrated by the Griffith-Stillings imprint, in which it forms a part of a clever modern decorative design (Example [547]).
Frederic W. Goudy incorporated the Venetian printers’ device most interestingly in the decorative mark of the Village Press (Example [531]).
The imprint-device of the Gould Press (Example [543]) may have originated with the Venetian printers’ design. It is an interesting variant.
These numerous uses by printers and others of the old circle-and-cross design suggest a paraphrase of an ancient proverb: “A good device lives forever.”
William Caxton, England’s first printer, used an imprint-device (Example [533]) that in appearance resembles a rug, which it may have been intended to represent, as Caxton is supposed to have used this mark when he was a merchant at Bruges in Belgium. The characters contained in the design have caused much discussion. The “W” on the left and the “C” on the right are generally accepted as the initials of Caxton. The center characters have been claimed by some to be the figures “74,” but the most reasonable explanation is that they form a trade device used by the merchants of Bruges. This explanation is seemingly confirmed by the discovery of a memorial plate to one John Felde, containing his trademark as a merchant, which trademark is very similar to the characters in the center of Caxton’s imprint-device. The reproduction of the Felde design shows that if the top stroke were taken away and a loop added the result would be Caxton’s characters.
Wynkyn de Worde, when he succeeded Caxton as England’s printer, adopted Caxton’s characters (probably a sentimental act) and in the device shown added his own name at the foot.
William Morris, in planning an imprint-device for the Kelmscott Press, evidently made a study of de Worde’s design, for there is resemblance in shape and in the placing of the name at the foot.
T. C. Hansard, on the title-page of his “Typographia” (1825), uses a device which tradition tells us was granted by Emperor Frederick III of Germany to a corporation of master printers known as the Typothetæ. (See Example [532].) References by writers to the origin of this design are generally contradictory. The United Typothetæ and Franklin Clubs of America, an association of employing printers, has adopted the device and uses it in the conventionalized form shown. The design in its original form tends to heraldic elaborateness. There is represented an eagle holding a copy guide in one claw and a composing stick in the other. Surmounting the design is a griffin (eagle-lion) grasping two ink balls. The Winthrop Press mark (Example [543]) and other printers’ devices have been inspired by this emblem, as the griffin copyholder and ink balls are familiar decorative forms.